<p>It’s a UK article but applies equally to the US.</p>
<p>[Careers</a> Advice for Jobseekers in the Scientific Industry | LinkedIn](<a href=“LinkedIn News | LinkedIn”>LinkedIn News | LinkedIn)
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<p>Money is not an important factor in deciding my career. If I do manage to earn a physics PhD and start working as a either researcher in a lab or a professor, I wouldn’t mind earning 30K/year. Money does not buy happiness, and if you enjoy what you are doing, you won’t have to work a day in your life.</p>
<p>If money is important to you, then don’t go into the sciences. There’s always engineering and business.</p>
<p>But having a job at all is important especially one with health insurance. You may think that now but in the future you may want to have a family and try supporting one on $30k. Also you may want and actually need to retire some day and you will need savings for that.</p>
<p>I agree money isn’t everything but if you don’t have enough to support even yourself then it isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>I don’t know about that as I’m not an expert in health insurance. But, if you work in a national lab (for the government) or for a post-secondary institution, is health-care coverage really that much of a problem? If it is a real problem, then one should consider relocating to either Canada or a European country as health insurance won’t be much of a problem and scientists are in demand. </p>
<p>30K/year is more than sufficient to raise a family with. My parents raised me with less than that, and we lived quite comfortably. Of course, if you need the newest gadgets every year and buy a new car every 3 years, then it could be a problem.</p>
<p>There has been inflation since you were young. $30K then is more like $45-60K now. Also this article is from the UK so I am not sure how much better things are in europe.</p>
<p>I’m a first year university student (<20 years old) and I live in a pretty big city, so I doubt inflation occurred over such a short time interval. As for the UK, I am not sure. I did read some articles on other European countries (specifically Germany and France) and the high demand for scientists and high supply of R&D jobs. </p>
<p>As a side note, I’d say scientists have it much better than they did a century ago. Back in those days, most scientists were broke and had to pay out of their pocket for their own experiments. Only after they have made some groundbreaking discovery would they be hired by the government or a private company and go from “rags to riches”. Let’s not forget, Nikola Tesla and many other renowned scientists died broke, and if he were alive today, he’d easily be a millionaire and would have quite easily exceeded Edison’s world record in patents.</p>
<p>If you’re a Chemistry or Physics graduate who’s having a trouble getting a job or uninterested in going into your field, I recommend trying to get a Data Analyst job, or anything similar. Make sure you master MS Office and self-study useful programming languages like SQL, Java, or C+. There are quite a few companies that are willing to take all majors for these kind of positions.</p>
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I read the same thing about the high demand for scientists in the US even now. It is complete and utter bull posted by companies who like a surplus of cheap scientists and as justification for more h1-b’s and parroted by very clueless politicians like Obummer.</p>
<p>Also now a days working for a company if you make a groundbreaking discovery you will never see a penny from it and it might not even help you keep your job.</p>
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I don’t think restricting h1-b’s at this point is going to change things much. This has nothing to do with politics. The reason why people are going into the sciences and there is oversupply of scientists is simply because many believe that it pays well since it is closely related to engineering. Unfortunately, they went into the sciences for the wrong reasons. A scientist that is truly passionate about their field would even work for free, although it would become their part-time job as they’d have to pick up a full-time job to support themselves.</p>
<p>There is doubt everywhere. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in science, business, technology, etc. The pinch is being felt everywhere. On the importance of healthcare, I don’t much believe in it. I don’t believe in doctors desecrating my body to only make me feel a little better when I know I’m going to die anyway. I don’t take aspirin or any other pharmaceutical. So you’d ask yourself, would you like to live and suffer, or would you like to die and be at peace? With that put aside, science degrees have a huge hand over humanities degrees and definitely over a generic business degree aka business administration. I considered chemistry at first, as well as physics. But then recently I wondered, what kind of program can I apply this knowledge of chemistry and physics to. I came up with chemical or materials engineering. These two combines the theory behind chemistry and physics, such as thermodynamics, inorganic chem, organic chem, kinetics, fluid mechanics, etc. and applies it to a global scale, instead of just at the molecular level. Also, as a ChemE or MatE, I can still do research, but if I was a pure chemistry or physics major, I cannot become an engineer unless I go to grad school which I don’t plan to directly after undergrad, and with my goal of working on alternative energy, that B.S. in ChemE/MatE is needed.</p>
<p>^That sounds like a plan and it’s very nice you have a specific goal. Good luck!</p>